


Fighting Words

by Penknife



Category: Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Genre: Gen, Post-Star Wars: A New Hope, Pre-Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-22 21:44:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17670674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penknife/pseuds/Penknife
Summary: It's been a long time since Savareen.





	Fighting Words

**Author's Note:**

  * For [minnabird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/minnabird/gifts).



> Written as a treat for the Chocolate Box exchange.

It's a short run from the Alliance base to pick up a shipment of weapons that some kind of splinter rebel group has gotten their hands on. Apparently these people have wound up knee-deep in military-issue blaster rifles, and instead of selling them to make the profit they probably deserve, they're handing them over to the Alliance. Han finds this deeply suspicious, and is annoyed that no one else seems to share his point of view.

"I get it that they want to help the Alliance," Han says. "I just don't trust people who want to help the Alliance out of the goodness of their hearts."

Chewie looks at him as if it is not perfectly reasonable to feel that anybody who is on their side right now has a few screws loose. Han waves a hand to head off any further discussion of that question and steps out the hatch.

They've landed the ship in a vast, shadowy cavern, with acoustics that suggest it goes on a lot farther than he can see. He can hear footsteps, but he can't make out more than shadowy forms approaching. It would make a great spot for an ambush. This might still not turn bad, but he's not holding his breath. 

He's got his back to the hatchway, and if they have to make a break for it, they're well set to do that, so he stands his ground. A form steps out into the dim cavern light, wearing complicated and menacing-looking armor. Familiar complicated and menacing armor.

"Enfys Nest?"

She sweeps her helmet off, looking equally surprised to see him. "Solo. No one said you were our contact."

"No one said you were the philanthropists who feel like giving us a pallet of guns."

"Several pallets," Enfys Nest says, and nods to her people to start carrying them on board the Falcon. Han nods to Chewie, who lets them. 

He still expects her to look like a kid, but when he adds up the time that's passed, it fits. From the look she's giving him, she probably still expects him to look like a kid. "You don't have a use for this stuff?"

"Oh, we're using a lot of it. But we thought we'd share." She smiles, suddenly, and that makes her look younger. "I always thought you had an idealistic streak."

"I do not have an idealistic streak," he says, offended at the idea.

"You're here."

"I'm just …" He would like to say "here for the money," but he's not, actually, getting paid. He's here because other people have idealistic streaks, and he hasn't been able to bring himself to leave while they're in this fight. That doesn't make it any less stupid a fight. Or at least that's what he keeps trying to tell himself. "It's complicated."

"It always is."

"Are you sure you don't want anything in exchange for these?"

She shrugs. "Do you have anything?"

He doesn't, in fact, have any cash to spare. That's one of the problems he's currently trying not to think about. "We have some Alliance rations," he says.

"We could use some Alliance rations."

"Chewie! See what supplies we can spare, all right? We can stock up again when we get back to the base."

When he turns, she's watching him, looking amused. "Now who's the philanthropist?"

"This is business," he says. "You should learn to drive a harder bargain."

She shakes her head. "Not everything is business, Han." 

"You tell me what isn't," he says. 

Her smile twists sideways. "That's not the man I remember."

"Savareen was a long time ago," Han says. "We all grew up."

"And now you're a Rebel agent. I'm glad you've decided to join the struggle for freedom. Idealist."

"Hey, those are fighting words," Han says, because now he thinks she's just trying to wind him up.

She looks amused again. "Do you really want a fight?"

He might outshoot her, but he is pretty certain that she'd win a brawl. "How about I take the blaster rifles so we can go have a fight with the other guys."

"Give our regards to the other guys," Enfys Nest says. 

"I'm glad you're still in one piece," he says before he can think better of it. He would have figured her for dead a long time ago, cut down in one hopeless fight or another. Maybe she's just that good. 

She smiles again, that smile that seems like it would be more at home on the face of a kid with a vision than a woman who's been fighting her own private war for more than ten years. "You see," she said. "Everything I told you about a rebellion was true."

"I'm just not sure it's winning," Han says.

She shrugs. "So go shoot some Imperials and improve the odds."

"That is always the trick," Han says. He doesn't want to think about their odds. 

"You have a fast ship, and you're clearly good at staying alive," she says, and those are things he's not going to argue with.

"Now you're talking," he says, and turns to help get the last of the weapons on board.


End file.
